Montco Commissioners Raise Pay For Next Board

July 05, 1986|by HAL MARCOVITZ, The Morning Call

To Commissioner Paul B. Bartle, the Montgomery County government is a corporation, the courthouse is the company's headquarters, the taxpayers are the stockholders, and he is the chief executive officer.

With that in mind, and despite the fact that the CEO has to answer to the stockholders at the polls next year, Bartle and fellow Republican Commissioner Betty B. Linker on Thursday approved raises that will increase their salaries by nearly $5,000 if they are re-elected in 1987.

"It's justifiable, considering the size of this corporation," said Bartle, who is chairman of the three-member board of commissioners.

Under the increases approved by the Republican commissioners, the chairman's salary will increase from its 1986 level of $35,900 to $40,500 in 1988, and the salaries of the other two commissioners will be raised from $33,800 to $38,100.

Raising the pay of public officials has always been a particularly sensitive subject because of the drawback of having to defend the raises during an election year. In Bucks County, for example, the row officers who received pay raises in January were the first elected officials to receive salary increases there in eight years.

That has not been the case in Montgomery County, where the commissioners have consistently tried to keep wage scales for elected officials in line with what private industry pays. And according to the most recent action by the board, commissioners and row officers taking office in 1988 will receive 9.5 percent raises that will be immediately adjusted upward, because the officeholders will also get a cost-of-living increase.

Democratic Commissioner Rita C. Banning voted against the increases. Banning pointed out that while Bartle may consider himself the chief executive officer of a corporation, she doesn't see herself as a second vice president.

"I think a 9.5 percent increase is unjustifiable," she said. "The compensation is adequate for the job as it is structured."

Banning said a commissioner comes to the job through political, not corporate, channels. A commissioner, she said, can take as much time as he or she wants to do the job. She said a commissioner can accept the wage the job currently pays or accept the wage and hold down another job on the side.

Bartle, an associate of a Norristown law firm, has a source of income other than the county government. Neither Banning nor Linker holds outside jobs.

"There are many people out in the world holding responsible jobs who earn less than $35,000 a year," Banning said.

The Democrat added that if she wins re-election next year, she would accept the cost-of-living increase but donate the 9.5 percent pay raise to charity. The probable beneficiary is the Pottstown YWCA, according to Banning.